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Disproportionately impacted community permitting rule

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Please note: If you would like to request a Spanish interpretation, please email cdphe_apcd_outreach@state.co.us. 


Tenga en cuenta: Si desea solicitar interpretación al español, envíe un mensaje por correo electrónico a cdphe_apcd_outreach@state.co.us. 

Source-specific air monitoring requirements

Starting July 15, 2024 air pollution sources located in disproportionately impacted communities may be subject to new source-specific air monitoring requirements. Requirement applicability will be determined based on the permit application received.

These new requirements stem from May 2023 and 2024 updates to Regulation Number 3.
The Air Pollution Control Division’s Guidelines for Disproportionately Impacted Community Source-Specific Monitoring Requirements provides detailed information about:

  • Source-specific monitoring requirements.
  • How to develop a monitoring plan.

Source-specific air monitoring requirement applicability and the timeline for monitoring plan submission and implementation depend on:

  • The type of permit application submitted.
  • The specific project that will be permitted.
  • Whether or not the facility is located in a disproportionately impacted community.

If you’re required to design and implement a source-specific monitoring plan, the division will work with you during the plan development process. You’re encouraged to begin developing your monitoring plan as soon as possible to ensure sufficient time for development, review, and approval. For more information, read the division’s Guidelines for Disproportionately Impacted Community Source-Specific Monitoring Requirements.

Reminder: The Permit Application/Registration Checklist Form APCD-100  is required for all permit applications. An updated version will be available as of July 15, 2024.

Monitoring fees

Starting October 15, 2024, air pollution sources located in disproportionately impacted communities may be subject to community air monitoring fees. Requirement applicability will be determined based on permit applications submitted.

These new requirements stem from May 2023 and 2024 updates to Regulation Number 3.

Applicability of new air monitoring requirements

To determine if these enhanced air monitoring requirements may apply to your facility:

If your facility is located in a cumulatively impacted community:

  • New enhanced source-specific air monitoring requirements may apply. 
  • Other air monitoring requirements may still apply.

If your facility is located in a socioeconomically vulnerable community:

  • A new community air monitoring fee may apply.
  • Other air monitoring requirements may still apply.

If your facility is not located in a disproportionately impacted community:

  • The new source-specific air monitoring requirements do not apply. 
  • The new community air monitoring fee does not apply. 
  • Other air monitoring requirements may still apply.

Contact us

Questions? Email cdphe_apcd_dicmonitoring@state.co.us and cdphe.commentsapcd@state.co.us with “Source-specific Air Monitoring Requirements” and the facility name in the subject line.

Starting Jan. 1, 2024, permit applications for air pollution sources located in cumulatively impacted communities may be subject to new reasonably available control technology (RACT) requirements. These new requirements stem from May 2023 updates to Regulation Number 3. (In particular: Part B, sections III.D.2.c and III.D.2.d.)

To determine if these expanded RACT requirements apply to your facility:

If your facility is located in a cumulatively impacted community:

  • The new expanded RACT requirements may apply.

If your facility is not located in a cumulatively impacted community:

  • The new expanded RACT requirements do not apply. 
  • Other RACT requirements may still apply.

Once you submit your complete permit application, the Air Pollution Control Division will notify you if the new RACT requirements apply to your facility. The division’s permitting team will contact you about any information needed for the RACT analysis at that time. This process will be similar to how the division implements current RACT analyses for facilities.

Note: Projects that require an analysis for the new RACT requirements are likely not eligible to use the minor permit modification procedures.

If you have questions, please contact:

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Subject matter expert panel (November 2023 - July 2024)

Past subject matter expert panel technical meetings

 

Past public information meetings

The division hosted two public informational sessions in 2024. During these meetings, the division helped explain the subject matter expert panel’s progress and decisions, provided opportunity for public comment, and answered questions.

The Air Quality Control Commission adopted the disproportionately impacted community permitting rule in May 2023. As part of implementing the new rule, the Air Pollution Control Division convened a panel of subject matter experts. The panel supported development of an air monitoring guidance document. The guidance will serve as a resource for pollution sources that must conduct enhanced air monitoring.

During monthly meetings from fall 2023 to spring 2024, the panel discussed technical recommendations for enhanced air monitoring, including: 

  • Which reasonably available technologies can monitor the air pollutants in the rule.
  • Evaluations of the available air monitoring technologies.
  • Air monitor placement and operational requirements.
  • Data collection and transmission processes. 
  • Reporting and sharing requirements for air pollution data.

Division staff helped facilitate the panel’s monthly meetings. The division considered the panel’s findings, recommendations, and best practices for air quality monitoring and incorporated them into a guidance document.
 

Meet the panel

The division is grateful for the panelists and their diverse air quality monitoring expertise. This panel helped ensure balanced and comprehensive recommendations for the air monitoring guidance. All panelists graciously volunteered their time.

  • Tim Dye, TD Environmental Services
    Tim Dye has over 30 years of experience in air quality monitoring, data management, and public communication. A visionary and entrepreneur, he has created air quality applications that vividly communicate air quality conditions. Tim is respected as an independent voice in the air monitoring community. Tim works in many areas of air quality: 1) low-cost, air quality sensor evaluation and deployment, 2) air quality monitoring, 3) data management and analytics, and 4) community science applications. He is regularly sought out for his wide-ranging and strategic insights on air quality sensing by foundations, NGOs, government, industry, and companies worldwide.
  • Austin Heitmann, Montrose
    Mr. Heitmann brings 8 years of expertise in overseeing technology development, air monitoring programs, and continuous emissions monitoring system (CEMS) installations. His proficiency extends to ambient, fenceline, and source CEMS integration for diverse North American projects. He excels in cost-effective ambient air sensor development for community and industry-based monitoring. Mr. Heitmann's adeptness in interpreting and communicating data proves invaluable to clients. He's led numerous projects adhering to EPA methods, employing various technologies like FTIR, UV-DOAS, and TDL. He's installed and managed monitoring systems for diverse compounds.
  • Brendan Lawlor, Denver Department of Public Health and Environment
    Brendan Lawlor is the air quality analyst for the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment (DDPHE) and oversees the Love My Air program’s air quality sensor network that monitors and reports the levels of air pollution in different areas of Denver. He combines his experience in environmental health and data analysis to find effective ways to improve the air quality and raise awareness among the public. He is motivated by his passion for tackling environmental issues and improving health outcomes.
  • Kate Hoag, Bay Area Air Quality Management District
    Kate Hoag works at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District with a team focused on air monitoring study design and data analysis. This work encompasses the agency’s regulatory and source-oriented air monitoring programs and also community-partnered air monitoring programs such as California’s Assembly Bill 617. Prior to joining the Air District in 2015, she worked at Region 9 EPA and the School of Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill. Kate earned a MS in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University and a Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Science from UC Berkeley.
  • Cassie Archuleta, City of Fort Collins
    Cassie Archuleta is a Lead Air Quality Specialist for the City of Fort Collins, and has been working on the City’s air quality programs for the past 8 years. Prior to that, she received a masters degree in Atmospheric Science from CSU and worked for more than a decade as a consultant on air quality monitoring and policy projects for Federal Land Management Agencies, including the NPS, FS and BLM. For the City of Fort Collins, she has worked on monitoring, engagement and policy initiatives related to pollution sources and mitigation strategies.
  • Shelly Miller, University of Colorado Boulder
    Dr. Shelly L. Miller is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and faculty in the Environmental Engineering Program at the University of Colorado Boulder, holding an M.S. and Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from University of California, Berkeley, and a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from Harvey Mudd College.  Dr. Miller studies urban air quality and works diligently to understand the impact of air pollution on public health and the environment. She is an expert on indoor environmental quality, airborne infectious disease transmission, air pollution and air cleaning technologies, and assessing and mitigating urban air pollution exposures in underserved communities. Dr. Miller is a member of the Academy of Fellows of the International Society for Indoor Air and Climate (ISIAQ) and is also an Associate Editor for Environmental Science and Technology. Dr. Miller has published over 100 peer reviewed articles on air quality including timely papers on COVID-19 transmission and control and is the principal investigator on the National Science Foundation’s Social Justice and Environmental Equity Project in Denver (SJEQDenver.com).
  • Jamie Valdez, Mothers Out Front
    Jamie is a multicultural native of Pueblo, Colorado and a parent and grandparent with education in Electronics Technology and Psychology. He began his environmental justice work in 2015 as a volunteer Digital Organizer and has since expanded the scope of his work. He is now the Colorado Senior Organizer for a mother-founded, mother-led environmental justice organization called Mothers Out Front, working toward the goal of a livable climate for all children. He also serves as an appointed member of Colorado’s Environmental Justice Action Task Force. Jamie’s organizing background is primarily in racial and economic justice movements and he considers environmental justice a natural progression that’s become a passion. He therefore approaches all his work with equity, justice, and inclusivity in mind.
  • Michael Ogletree, Air Pollution Control Division, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
    Michael Ogletree is the Division Director for the Air Pollution Control Division (APCD) of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). Michael Ogletree is an experienced leader with a passion for using technology to create positive change. Since being with Air Pollution Control Division, Mr. Ogletree has been instrumental in major initiatives that focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from trucks and cars and prioritizing the uptake of zero-emission vehicles, creating strides towards public protections from toxic air contaminants, prioritizing Environmental Justice communities in engagement and permitting decisions, improving data transparency, and integrating the next-generation of air monitoring technology. Mr. Ogletree is dedicated to making a difference and creating a better future for us all.

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Disproportionately impacted community permitting rule overview

In May 2023, the Air Quality Control Commission adopted updates to Regulation Number 3 in response to Colorado’s Environmental Justice Act. Updates in the new rule include:

  • Additional required modeling and monitoring for air pollution sources in disproportionately impacted communities. These include communities of color, low-income residents, and communities already being harmed by pollution.
  • Pollution reduction requirements for air pollution sources in communities overburdened by pollution. These are known as cumulatively impacted communities.

The new requirements apply to stationary sources of these air pollutants:

  • Volatile organic compounds.
  • Fine particulate matter.
  • Nitrogen oxides. 
  • Benzene.
  • Ethylbenzene.
  • Toluene.
  • Xylene. 

Pollution sources covered by the rule must meet one or more of these requirements:

  • Include an environmental justice summary in permit applications.
  • Complete enhanced permit modeling.
  • Conduct enhanced air monitoring.
  • Use reasonably available control technology to reduce air pollution if in a cumulatively impacted community.

Update: May 2024 rule revisions.

On May 16, 2024, the Air Quality Control Commission updated Regulation Number 3. These revisions include: 

  • Clarifying and enhancing permitting rules about environmental justice summaries and disproportionately impacted community air monitoring.
  • Directing fees collected for the disproportionately impacted community monitoring program from the Air Quality Enterprise to the Air Pollution Control Division via the stationary source fund.
  • Removing emergency affirmative defense provisions from Part C for Title V Operating Permits to correspond with revisions to federal regulations.
  • Other clarifying and correcting revisions.

In 2024, the Air Pollution Control Division provided updates during public meetings about proposed changes to Air Quality Regulation 3. The proposed changes included updates to Colorado’s disproportionately impacted community permitting rule.

 

The Air Pollution Control Division held several meetings in late 2022 as part of the rulemaking process. Feedback from these meetings helped inform the division’s disproportionately impacted community permitting rule proposal in 2023.

Thursday, Dec. 19, 2022.

  • Private community conversation in Commerce City, CO.

Thursday, Dec.8, 2022.

  • Private community conversation in Pueblo, CO.

Friday, Dec.2, 2022.

  • Private technical workshop.

Saturday, Oct.29, 2022.

Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022.

  • Private technical workshop. 

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022.